Summary

• Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game of 2023, but Warner Bros. has voiced a commitment to live-service games in the future.
• Despite shifting toward ongoing projects, Hogwarts Legacy's summer update already proved Avalanche Software and WB can't deliver legacy content.
• Hogwarts Legacy 2 may turn out much different than its predecessor, with live-service monetization making it worse.

The highly anticipated wizarding world title best-selling game of 2023, managing the rare feat of beating that year's Call of Duty. The title brought fans of the Harry Potter franchise back more than a hundred years before the titular character's birth, letting them walk the walls of Hogwarts in a way no other game set in the well-loved fantasy world had ever done before.

Hogwarts Legacy was easily a financial win for the burgeoning game publisher, but despite its success as a single-player game, there's a possibility that Warner Bros. isn't planning the type of sequel players are hoping for. Given some recent comments from an executive at Warner Bros. Discovery, it seems the unconfirmed Hogwarts Legacy 2 may look a lot different.

Warner Bros. Plans To Focus On Live Service Games Going Forward

Warner Bros. Discovery Gaming Boss Plans To Pour Into Mobile And Free-To-Play Titles

During a Morgan Stanley speaking event in March 2024, Warner Bros. Discovery gaming boss J.B. Perrette confirmed that the gaming division is looking for new ways to create games using its existing IP, but his comments raise some concerns for players. "Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, a Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world in an ongoing basis?" he said, per GameSpot.

It's a move that Perrette confirmed is prioritizing long-term profits over creating impactful stories within the IP available to Warner Bros. Though a free-to-play title would ultimately make a Hogwarts Legacy sequel more accessible for all possible players, it completely changes the tone and format of a story that many die-hard Harry Potter fans loved. Ever since the release of Hogwarts Legacy, players have been begging for more, but these comments make it clear it likely won't come in the form they're hoping for.

Perrette's comments have led to a popularly signed Hogwarts Legacy 2 petition, in which signatories hope to keep the game from being live-service.

Hogwarts Legacy Already Didn't Hold Up To Past The Initial Hype

The Much-Teased Summer Update Was Decidedly Lackluster

More than a year after Hogwarts Legacy was initially released on consoles, Avalanche Software teased a free summer update for players, promising more content and some much-needed features. But despite the long lead-up to this update that many hoped would be DLC-sized, it merely added photo mode, the update that disappointed players.

These additions were small in comparison to the longevity plenty of developers have added to other "one-and-done console game[s]" through consistent updates, using player as a guiding light. Despite the many requests and hopes from players for possible additions in this update (such as new mounts, spells, or side quests), the final result showed that the developers had given little thought to the big ideas players had for the growth of the game.

Not only do live-service games need that care and attention to player that Avalanche and Warner Bros. have not exhibited so far, but writing off the influence of single-player console games is also a disservice to the impact they can have. Hogwarts Legacy laid the groundwork for a great original storyline set in the wizarding world, but a possible live-service sequel is setting the franchise up for more failure.

Source: GameSpot